We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Tianyi Qi about their original and creative Mobile Application design work. Tianyi Qi is an award-winning communication designer, that makes our world a better place with their original mobile application works.
Tianyi Qi ("TQ") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Reamember Mobile Application. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
TQ : I had the idea for this design when I first came to New York City for graduate school. I needed to do a lot of reading but at that time my English was not very good, especially my vocabulary. I had a hard time understanding the reading materials because of the unfamiliar words. However, if I paused on reading to check out the meaning of the words, the reading flow would be interrupted. If I ignored the words, I would feel like missing out on opportunities of learning new words. That experience gave me the initial inspiration for this design: how might we help people who are studying another language to achieve learning goals on reading and vocabulary building in a seamless way?
TQ : The main focus of my design is to solve the pain point, or, the dilemma to be more accurate, in the English learning process. The cause of the problem is that English learners had to choose between checking out unfamiliar words or ignoring those words to achieve a nice reading flow. To solve this problem, I designed an experience where users can quickly check out the words while reading, so they won't break the flow. And those words they checked out will be stored in the vocabulary book. They can review and learn the words later, in their dedicated vocabulary learning time.
TQ : The "Reading" and "Vocabulary-building" part of the design is pretty polished. I have run multiple user testing sessions to collect feedback and iterate on the design details. However, the "Community" tab of the design is still at an early stage, with a lot of potential to be a strong add-on to the current experience. In my vision for this product, users will form a language learning community where they share learning tips and articles. Another area of improvement is to support other languages beyond just English.
TQ : It took me 3 months from the beginning to the end. I had a full-time job while I was working on the project so I could only use my spare time. I started with desk research and interviews with other English learners, which helped me understand the prevalence of the problem. I did a few rounds of brainstorming to come up with ideas to solve the problem and selected the one that I felt most strongly to develop into lo-fi wireframes. I tested wireframes with potential users to get feedback and iterate the design. I designed the visual style of the app at the very end of the project.
TQ : I designed this concept to pursue inspiration. I myself am an English learner and have been bothered by this problem for a really long time, and so do my peer English learners. I have used many English learning apps, however, most of them are specific to one area of English learning, for example, vocabulary building. As a person experiencing the language learning process, I have a view on top of these seemingly separate skills - the problems English learners are facing always exist at the intersection of multiple skills, thus the solution to these problems should be holistic. This project is my attempt to find an answer to this complex design challenge.
TQ : Beginner to intermediate English learners who want to build vocabulary. In the future, I do want to include more language options in the app.
TQ : My design sits at the intersection of two distinguished types of applications - English learning tools and browsers. Most English learning apps on the market are targeting specific English skills. My design aims to help users get better at reading and in the meantime, they can collect unfamiliar words from the article and learn them later. It is a more holistic approach to learning English, instead of building each skill separately. Browser is another tool English learners use to do reading. A lot of browsers today have integrated translation functions that can help the user find out the meaning of words immediately. However, users can't save those new words and go back to review later, which is not helpful to enhance their memory.
TQ : I am not very happy with the name of the design as many people thought it was a misspelling for "remember". But I kind of like the meaning of the name, it shows what the solution is really about - a combined, holistic experience of reading and remembering new words.
TQ : An important lesson I learned from this project is to not limit myself to existing product categories. As I mentioned earlier, my product fits in between an English learning tool and a browser. I had problems coming up with good ideas at the beginning stage of the design process because I was too focused on designing a vocabulary-building tool. I had the final idea when I was trying to combine two different ideas together, and to my surprise, it worked well! From that on, I started to focus on the specific problems users face in their life in the ideation stage, instead of designing the type of products. I know that if I follow the design process, I will eventually find the best solution, no matter what category it fits in.
TQ : This is kind of a unique design project because I am also a potential user of the product, as I was bothered by the English learning problem. This experience made me think a lot about my identity and how it relates to my job as a designer. Working in the United State as an international person whose first language is not English sometimes made me feel I am in a disadvantaged place compared to other people. However, I am able to identify problems like what Raemember is solving only because I belong to the English learner community. This connection also helped me easily find people to participate in the research and user testing sessions. Now I totally changed my perspective on my identity - it's actually an unexpected advantage for me and helps a lot with my design practice.
